Second Saturday in April; mayor is elected separately from council members, at the same time; council members run by district, but voters can vote for candidates in any district; two-term limits on mayor and council

The Ocean View Town Council is considering raising some fees for next year. The council discussed the changes on Nov. 14, holding a first reading, ahead of a final vote anticipated at their Dec. 12 meeting.

Coastal Point • Laura Walter: Following approval from Ocean View Town Council, Carl M. Freeman Companies is moving a corporate office to Bear Trap.When The Village at Bear Trap Dunes was built in the 1990s, it might have doubled the geographic area of Ocean View. There were grand plans for houses, golf, dining and shopping. Years later, Bear Trap hit the first three goals, but they never quite built the shopping community they intended.

Developers at the Carl M. Freeman Companies had envisioned boutique office space or retail businesses at 21 and 24 Village Green Drive. But the commercial development attempts were costing too much, and the real estate market was depressed. Since then, Freeman Companies have been trying to determine the perfect anchor businesses to attract smaller shops inside the community.

“That anchor is us,” said Chris Garland, senior vice president of development and construction. “Freeman itself is experiencing a regrowth. We’ve been around for 40 years in the market and 70 years [overall]. We’re going to bring to Bear Trap a corporate Freeman office for just about everything we do.”

Since the whole area is growing again, the time is considered ripe for Freeman to consolidate operations under one roof, including their Route 54 office.

To continue their public outreach and education, the Ocean View Historical Society will host a lecture by local author and storyteller Ed Okonowicz on “The Food Lore of Delmarva — Muskrat, Scrapple & More.”

“This talk was made possible by a grant from the Delaware Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities,” said OVHS President Barbara Slavin.

As part of an ongoing effort locally, state-wide and nationally, people are being encouraged to visit some of their local police departments this weekend to properly dispose of their unneeded or expired prescription medications.

In 2012, the Ocean View Town Council hired Hendricks & Associates to conduct a compensation study to analyze the duties of town employees. The thought was to develop a salary grade and range structure so that the Town would not have retention issues.

The Ocean View Historical Society is giving residents and visitors the unique opportunity to get an inside look at some of the most historic homes in Ocean View on Saturday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Joanne Gichner House, built in the early 1900s, is one of seven historical homes on the Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Oct. 7.Tourgoers on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7, will be able to stroll through the Joanne Gichner House — a large, stately Victorian — to see how its owners lovingly renovated a 100-year-old structure in keeping with its origins.

One of the home’s two functioning woodstoves remains in the front living room, very typical of Ocean View houses before electricity and central heating. Gichner and her late husband, Michael, purchased the home in the 1970s, remodeling the house twice by moving walls, modernizing the kitchen and turning the side porch into a full bath, foyer and laundry room, but keeping the original main staircase, front porch and main entry foyer.

Michael Gichner’s father, William Gichner, was the blacksmith at Iron Age Antiques (the building now houses the Salon on Central), and the Gichner living room showcases a one-of-a- kind iron quilt on a stand made by many blacksmiths to honor William Gichner on his 75th birthday. Tourgoers can also admire the rolltop desk in the family office.

Coastal Point photos • Shaun M. Lambert: Sussex Riptide, a group of Sepcial Olympics Delaware participants, and the Ocean View Police Department took part in a bicycle regatta, traveling through Bear Trap Dunes in Ocean View on Thursday, Sept. 21.Before the Special Olympics Cycling Classic at Dover Air Force Base on Sept. 23, Sussex Riptide athletes gathered at the Ocean View Police Department for a pre-race hurrah.

“This is a nice cooldown before the Dover race. When they get there, they’re amped up and ready to do — whereas this is more of a social event,” said Riptide coach Adam Rones.

“They all enjoy it — it’s a fun day for all of them,” added coach Tony Gough.

The athletes, with a full-blown escort from the Ocean View Police Department, pedaled from the OVPD all through Bear Trap — about a 45-minute ride — before returning to the police department for a celebratory pizza party.

“I like it,” said athlete Jillian Calanna, 23, who also participates in tennis and bowling. “I like being with the athletes and socializing.”

CierkowskiThe Ocean View Police Department is seeking the public’s help in locating Brent Cierkowski, 26, of Ocean View, in connection with lawn-ornament thefts in the area.

“They’re stealing whatever’s not tied down, unfortunately. And, it’s something they’ve been able to take to yard sales and flea markets and other locations and sell them readily,” said Ocean View Police Chief Ken McLaughlin.

Cierkowski, who is still wanted by police, has warrants charging him with two counts of theft under $1,500 where the victim is 62 year of age or older, two counts of theft under $1,500, three counts of trespass 3rd, one count of conspiracy 2nd, and two counts of conspiracy 3rd.

“Some of these lawn ornaments had some value. They were the concrete-type lawn ornaments. You see these concrete benches, things like that,” said McLaughlin.

Originally built by Olive West, a granddaughter of George H. West, the West Cottage was lovingly remodeled 10 years ago in keeping with the expert craftsmanship of its ancestor.

The two-story, 3 bedroom traditional colonial, is located on a large lot overlooking the Ocean View Town Park. For many years, the home served as a guest house, like today’s bed-and-breakfast inns, and current owner George W. Hermance, possesses a 1936 guest book naming some of the depression day lodgers.

While owner Hermance purchased the house furnished just a few weeks ago, his artistic eye and training as a landscape architect attracted him to this classic home and sizeable grounds. Tour-goers will be able to see a black-and-white photo of the original home, the guest book, original paintings by its current owner, and idyllic views from the home’s big windows and decks.

Coastal Point • File Photo : The now-annual Cops & Goblins event in Ocean View is a great opportunity for kids to celebrate Halloween in a safe atmosphere, and allows the community to get to know the Ocean View police a little more.Three years ago, the Ocean View Police Department took a seed of an idea and created the community-oriented Halloween event known as Cops & Goblins.

“Chief came to me one day a few years ago and said, ‘Rhys, I have an idea,’” recalled Sgt. Rhys Bradshaw. “‘I’ve been thinking about creating a Halloween event — something free for the kids in the community.’

“Where I grew up in New Jersey, Halloween was an event. We went out and trick-or-treated all through the neighborhoods. You don’t see that much around here,” Bradshaw said.

The free event hosts families in Ocean View’s John West Park for a few hours, offering families a safe environment for trick-or-treating while having positive interactions with local law-enforcement officers.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The Holt Dukes Wadley House, built around 1884, will be featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural tour of historic homes on Oct. 7.Above the wicker table in the living room of the c. 1884 Holt Dukes Wadley House is a picture of its early owners, Henry and Jenny (Eunice Jane Short) Holt. Jenny was an avid churchgoer, so Henry bought and moved the old Ocean View Presbyterian Church to their back yard to make room for the current Presbyterian Church sanctuary.

The church joined several outbuildings on the property, including a chicken coop, outhouse, summer kitchen and old barn. Many of the structures were donated to the Lewes Historical Society prior to the Ocean View Historical Society’s formation, but the Holt Dukes Wadley House will be among the historic homes in the area featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Tour goers can walk through the colonial-style home, which tradition has it was the first house in Ocean View to acquire indoor plumbing. Large front and side porches provide spots for current owners George and Nancy Dukes Wadley to “soak in” the Sussex sunshine. The owners described the home’s interior as “early attic,” with no TVs anywhere, so the inside ambience is somewhat true to its post-Civil War origins.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The Smith house, built around 1839, has been renovated to expand the space. The home will be featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural tour of historic homes on Oct. 7.Perhaps the oldest surviving house in Ocean View, the circa-1839 Smith House was built by the Tunnell family on the Indian River and then moved to its present Daisy Avenue location a century later, before 1937. It will be among the historic homes in the area featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Duncan and Cindy Smith purchased the original 1,800-square-foot colonial-style home in 1999 and then renovated it into a 4,000-square-foot home for their young family. They used antiques to capture the house’s history: hanging doors from an old general store on the master bedroom shower, installing seats from the Lord Baltimore School auditorium and making indoor swings from the floor joist of the pre-Civil War house. The home still has its first fireplace, and the house’s original exterior front doors are now hung at the entry to the master bedroom.

Tourgoers can search for more creative adaptations in the game room and other areas. The grounds include a white picket fence, entrance arbor and in-ground pool.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The Evans West house, built around 1901, is the future home of the Coastal Towns Museum in Ocean View and will be featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural tour of historic homes on Oct. 7.As the century turned toward 1900, Ocean View newlywed Mary West Evans was given a piece of land on the corner of West and Oakwood Avenues by her father, Captain George H. West, who lived across the field (now a town park) in the Tunnell-West House, which was built circa 1850.

Mary West Evans and her husband, James Evans, a surfman at the Fenwick Island Lifesaving Station, built the stately gothic house, featuring pointed windows, angular roofline and corbels on the porch. It will be among the historic homes in the area featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7.

The State of Delaware’s historic preservationists have dubbed the home “The Downton Abbey of Ocean View” because of its classic Victorian style, masterful woodworking, etched glass window on the original front door and other marvelously preserved features.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The guest cottage behind the Selby Evans House was built around 1887.The Ocean View Historical Society will host its inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7, featuring a number of historical homes in the area. One of the featured homes is located a 41 West Avenue in Ocean View. Selby Evans and his wife, Elizabeth Hall Evans, were the first residents of the picturesque colonial style home, which is currently owned by their great-granddaughter Barbara Slavin.

A letter from Selby to his son James mentions the lumber was purchased in Frankford for $300. While the house was originally just a parlor and dining room with two bedrooms above, indoor plumbing and a new kitchen were added in 1935. The first kitchen is now a guest house open for viewing in the landscaped back yard, which includes a gazebo and several cozy seating areas. Inside the home, original artwork abounds, including a Laura Hickman painting of the Evans-West House across the street, where James Evans lived after he married Mary West.

Coastal Point • Maria Counts: Contractors for a Cause recently donated $3,000 to the Ocean View Historical Society.The Ocean View Historical Society is hoping to begin construction on its replica of Hall’s Store — a re-creation based on the general store that “gave rise” to the town of Ocean View — very soon, thanks to the continued support of Contractors for a Cause. The resulting structure will be a visitor’s center and education center, housing local artifacts, a meeting room, kitchenette and restrooms.

On Aug. 17, Mark Hardt, a charter member of and director of scholarships and membership for Contractors for a Cause, as well as co-owner of Miranda & Hardt Contracting, presented the society with a check for $3,000 from the non-profit.

Following the receipt of numerous complaints regarding stolen lawn ornaments, the Ocean View Police Department and Delaware State Police Troop 4 were recently able to arrest Randy P. Holderbaum and Matthew L. Donoway, both of Frankford, in connection to the crimes.

Book shop tells tales in Ocean View

Coastal Point • Laura Walter: Turning Pages Book Lounge gives new life to used books and invites customers to come in and relax and enjoy the books.Grab a book, a coffee or a ukulele. (Maybe one of each.)

Kate and Brendan Heneghan are inviting people to start a new chapter at the new Turning Pages Book Lounge in Ocean View. The couple are selling used books, as well as comic books, music records, ukuleles and art.

In the old wooden shopping center across from Lord Baltimore Elementary School, they wanted to create a warm, open and inviting space that encourages browsing, without the clutter. This summer, they added vibrant turquoise paint, some couches and book shelves to a former T-shirt printing shop.

Customers are already spreading the word about the tiny Route 26 book shop that opened during Memorial Day weekend, where they curled up on the sofa with a $4 novel and bought a tea, coffee or soda.